Are spruce trees good for anything?

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I have several large spruce trees in my yard i want to cut down this winter. Is there any use for them? Can they be cut into lumber? Or just fire pit wood. I can take them to our city dump and they will chip them into mulch , but the logs can't be more than 20 inch diameter, so i would have to noodle most of them. Would they be ok for a outdoor wood burner?
 
From what I remember, spruce makes excellent framing as it does not need to be dried before using. It makes excellent “sweedish candles” as it burns a good long time and throws off plenty of sparks. Years ago, spruce gum was a profitable industry in Maine. You can still get spruce gum if you know where to go but cutting down the trees dose limit production.



https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/spruce-gum-zmaz81jfzraw
 
In MN we have white spruce on high ground (mostly) black spruce in the swamps, and blue spruce, Englemann, and Norway spruce in people's yards.

It doesn't hold coals and burn long like oak, birch, maple, and other hardwoods. It's hard to split when green. But I like the smell of the smoke in the fireplace at Christmas, so I always hoard a little for then.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
 
Spruce makes very good lumber. Maybe not so much if it is chock full of knots and twisted grain - not all spruce is the same. Have someone around there you could sell some saw logs to?

If not, sure, you can burn it for heat too. Just treat it like any other firewood - cut it, split it, dry it, burn it. It just doesn't have as much pounds per cubic foot, therefore not as much BTUs per cubic foot.
 
Does it mess your chimney up?

It burns clean when dry .
I polly burn 4+ cord a season in my furnace because I'm not hardwood rich . I can go about 3 weeks when I'm burning heavy without having to shovel ash , 1 week on hardwood .
Black spruce is the best of the spruces I've burnt because they are slow growth tree , I've burnt lots of 100+ year old black spruce , 3" dbh and you need a magnifying glass to count the growth rings .
Don't expect a 12hr burn time .
Pine snaps and pops way more than spruce .
 
Spruce was also a preferred wood for cookstoves

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Fast to get up to cooking temps , small firebox so less ash to deal with .
Small splits give you fast heat to cook your meal in the summer and then go out but not coal up .
 
It burns clean when dry .
I polly burn 4+ cord a season in my furnace because I'm not hardwood rich . I can go about 3 weeks when I'm burning heavy without having to shovel ash , 1 week on hardwood .
Black spruce is the best of the spruces I've burnt because they are slow growth tree , I've burnt lots of 100+ year old black spruce , 3" dbh and you need a magnifying glass to count the growth rings .
Don't expect a 12hr burn time .
Pine snaps and pops way more than spruce .
I guess I'll burn it then. My stove likes the softer wood when it in the 40's and 50's. I am not looking forward to splitting it though.
 
Spruce makes some really nice knoty type lumber for a man cave.

Seen a whole house done in it once.

:D Al
 
i do have a splitter. but have tried splitting some spruce once and i wasn't able to split it.

I've split a bunch & never had that problem. Sometimes you have to orient for big knots - common in big spruce. But big knotty splits can give some pretty good heat.
 
I hand split the straight stuff but when I have a bunch to do my SS with a 4.5 hp worked just fine .
I've also split about 4 cord though my 6hp hydraulic .

IMG_20140308_125723.jpg IMG_20131229_183516 (1).jpg

Oak and maple are easier to split most of the time .
 
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